Show x 4 ft t r r t t I t < k ft iI 4i I k 1 1 l + t JJS O 1 fl j > JO I P L vJ t 1 1 t r 1 r a a 1b L SOCIAL HIGHWAYWOMEN SOME STORIES OF KLEPTOMA IHA GOING THE ROUNDS I Strange Ewnpfingo of New Thing For Old Light Fingers in the DressingRoom and a Boston Girls Queer Experience With a Seal Skin Sacque 0 give it any name you like borrowing bor-rowing other peoples belongings and failing ever to return them mistaken Identity as to special possessions orS or-S 4 kleptomania but I call it thieving and something ought to bb done about it This is what the blonde woman in the very smart bonnet said to her nearest neighbor in blue whereupon every other woman near the table cut short her conversation and held her cup in mid air to hear what the discussion would bring forth That I do went on the blonde emphatically em-phatically and Ive been stolen from repeatedly No my dear I wont take a word of it back and Im not cV king hastily In every instance it was a plain case of theft and Ive not up to date recovered a single belonging Why of course if it had been a grimy y fingered sneak thief or a tooenterpris ing house maid I most naturally would have gone to the police and detectives for protection and assistance but it is not quite so easy to have an individual who wears the best French cloves whose bonnets comes from an expensive ex-pensive importers and who sometimes asks you to share her opera box receive re-ceive at her teas Jr take a lift homein I her brougham arrested and searched on suspicion Well I never remarked the woman In blue 0 thats Just because you are a dear unsophisticated little creature and out In your western towns they dont do such things the temptations are not so great but T can assure you that here in our big cities at regular intervals polite po-lite kleptomania is simply rampant and hardly a big function breaks up that half the women dont come away quite savage over the loss of some pretty and especially prized belonging Evidently the blonde was right for all the other women nodded assent and the hostess was apparently breathless to tell of some personal grievance on this score when the first speaker broke in again You see she elaborated we used to think it might have been the servants fault or an honest error hen we found our possessions exchanged ex-changed for others less valuable or simply disappearing until two or three times the offenders were caught ridit I in the act and then came the awfully dismal consciousness tbp illy no one could be trusted I My first experience was with a very I costly lace fan I carried to a dinner I held on to it most affectionately STpt throughout the evening until some 1 j Tialfdosen of us went up to the hostess belroom for our wraps There I laid It I with my vinagrette and fan on the f dressing table and when I turned to get them again the fan was gone I protested the maid searched but nothing noth-ing came of it and brokenheartedly I went down bewailing my loss to a sympathizing feminine companion We went out to our respective carriages to gethr but as the butler opened the hall door a puff of wind blew her long cloak aside and there I saw snug In I her pocket my precious fan Well the next day I wrote her very frankly asking I ask-ing for Its return suggesting of course she had taken it by mistake and home It came but we have never spoken since sinceThat taught me to look for higher offenders than maids In dressing rooms I who are usually accused of making way with all wraps umbrellas overshoes over-shoes and what not that may be missIng miss-Ing IngAh that is not my trouble chimed In a debutante across the tea table < r < r r d d I The favorite plan is now to exchange bad for good things I am growing I almost philosophical over the deplorable 1 deplor-able shabbiness of my wardrobe from I this constant swapping Last week on coming up late to the dressing room from a dance I found In place of my brandnew green suede carriage overshoes over-shoes two overlarge badlyworn ones of rusty black velvet and my lace head scarf exchanged for a frayed one of soiled white chiffon Naturally cross and sleepy I fell on the tired maid who wept and denied but looked I as if she could tell a tale Only to make a test case of ito I rolled my new French goloshes in my mackintosh laid my card on top and put them in a safe corner of the I dressing room of a house where I went to luncheon the other day But it was of no avail the goloshes had been metamorphosed into a pair of muddy I rubbers with holes in them when I went back and I didnt grumble since my pretty umbrella was left Altogether I Alto-gether this season has cost me some four pairs of perfectly new rain boots and endless umbrellas I and yet my I case is not so hard as that of other victims The work of the spoiler goes on in the cloak rooms when big wedding wed-ding receptions teas musicales and private balls are In progress At one of the big dances of the season the hostess simply ordered her I maid to Issue checks for every wo mans wraps and charming to relate I not so much as a hairpin was lost for at her daughters wedding reception recep-tion only a week before three muffs I got away somehow without their rightful I right-ful owners and the possessor of a 300 sable hand warmer found a scrubby old astrachan one in its place That is where these fashionable kleptomaniacs salve their consciences by an exchange you see for rarely is anything taken that some Inferior article is not put in its place and very rarely are they caught up with Their position in society is one of pro t ction and their victims are too timid I or proud to trace a clew which too often leads right to the door of their best friends or some woman who is sliding materially in helping them along in society There are occasions however where a bold spirt does demand justice and I do know of an instance where this determination to chercher la femme led to almost tragic results Both victim and the guilty one had hard attacks of nervous prostration after It and the pretty aristocratic kleptomaniac klepto-maniac has gone to live permanently abroad Then there isnt the slightest reason why we shouldnt hear all about it insisted the blonde while everybody else clamored for the story Well the victim wai a Boston girl who is not at all rich 10 her joy and pride In a brand new sc il skin coat a wealthy aunt gave her an be understood under-stood During the winter she was invited in-vited to stop at a charming house in New York and during her visit a smart friend gave a luncheon in her honor It Is needless to say she wore the sealskin seal-skin coat and had a very good time but all her pride was turned to tears when she failed to find in the cloakroom cloak-room her precious wrap Laid exactly in its place was a seal skin coat to be sure but a caricature of her own new and beautiful one The hostess was in despair and wrote around to all the other luncheon guests asking if they had worn her friends coat home by mistake she discharged the maid who had that day presided over the cloakroom cloak-room and the Boston girl went home in a state of almost settled melancholy She wore the ragged old substitute around a while and finally one day when she was obliged to mend one of Its pockets put her hand down In the lining and drew out a letter At least a piece of one which was nothing more than an affectionate epistle to the hostess of that fatal luncheon from her husband Being endowed with plenty of genuine New England frankness frank-ness fearlessness and grit that Boston girl promptly took the train for New York She spent 25 intense minutes in the house of her late friend and though she came out very pale she wore her own Jonglost seal skin coat having resigned the old one to its rightful owner MILLICENT ARROWPOINT A GJl |